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Isobelle Carmody

Isobelle Carmody began the first of her highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles while she was still at high school and worked on it while completing a Bachelor of Arts and then a journalism cadetship. The first book was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to and went on to be short-listed in the Older Readers section of the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award for older readers. The series and her short stories have established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia. She has written many award winning short stories and books for young people since then. Scatterlings won Talking Book of the year in 1992 and in 1993 The Gathering was a joint winner of 1993 CBC Book of the Year Award and winner of the 1994 Children’s Literature Peace Prize. Billy Thunder and the Night Gate was shortlisted for the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Childrens Literature in the 2001 NSW Premiers Literary Awards. Isobelle is currently working on The Red Queen, the final book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles, and the screenplay for Greylands, on a Film Australia grant. She has also begun a PhD at the University of Queensland.

While the 2017 ACT Writer-in-Residence, Isobelle Carmody will draw inspiration for her next project: an urban fantasy with a strong Canberra presence. “I will do a lot of walking and thinking in Canberra and I am very porous as a writer,” Carmody says, anticipating the places she’ll explore. “The Black Mountain Tower has something strange about it—strange as in a bit spooky and a bit enchanting. I want to walk around Lake Burley Griffin and go to all those monolithic places: the War Museum, Parliament House. But I will see them through my story, which I am really excited about. Excited to see what I make of Canberra, literally.”